


thorn-pierced rose, cyrillic inscription

by ah_kill_es



Category: The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Tattoos, Русский | Russian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 16:55:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21122132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ah_kill_es/pseuds/ah_kill_es
Summary: boris' tattoo didn't say катя. it said фёдор.





	thorn-pierced rose, cyrillic inscription

**Author's Note:**

> this was inspired by a headcanon posted by @theodyker in tumblr!! thank u for letting me write this! i may have gotten a bit carried away!
> 
> also thanks @ maddie for the unwavering support ily bitch

"and this-" i pushed my sleeve up, showing potter the tattoo i'd gotten many years ago, shortly after he'd left vegas: a rose, thorns all around it, piercing it, and фёдор written below it. "this is for katya, love of my life. i loved her more than any woman i ever knew."

"you say that about everybody."

even the youngest russian kid who had just learnt how to read would be able to tell you that was not woman's name. i had gotten the tattoo while high as fuck off of xandra's stuff, missing potter with all i had in me. i bribed the tattooer to do it using the rest of my drugs and i cried from the second the needle touched me, not because of the pain- compared to some of the things my father had done, this was maiden's kiss- but because potter, potter please come back, i'm sad and tired and hungry and lonely and i miss you. 

why had i shown it to him? well, i think i wanted him to see it. there was no way he could understand (i taught him how to swear, not how to read- important things only!) so i knew i was safe, safe from him knowing that i had carried him with me during all these years apart, even without the painting he'd always been with me, no second away, we were only one. he was engraved deep within me, forever and always.

you have always been here, i wanted to tell him, you've always lived inside of me in vegas.

but who cared if he understood or not. i had to get it off my chest, even if with woman's name, even if with girl pronouns.

"yes, but with katya, is true! would walk through broken glass for her! give my life, gladly! i will never love any person on the earth like katya again- not even close. she was the one. i would die and be happy for only one day with her. but-" i rolled my sleeve down again- "you should never get a person's name tattooed on you, because then you lose the person. i was too young to know that when i got the tattoo."

we had been doing blow on this shitty bar, and it was obvious it had been some time for potter since he did it for the last time. he was just rambling on about the years we spent away.

"you know what i did in college? i took conversational russian for a year. totally because of you."

WHAT.

oh fuck he knows he read my tattoo he knows i got his name instead of this katya i made up fuck shit shit shit quickly think someth-

"i did shitty in it, actually. never got good enough to read it, you know…"

i swear potter is going to kill me one day, and is not even gonna notice. jesus fucking christ.

many years had passed since we'd given our bird back to the world. potter was now going here and there trying to undid past scams- still can't believe it! stealing world precious art and committing forgery! my potter! ha!- and he was staying in antwerp in my apartment while he worked on one of them. it had been some time from the last time we saw each other, so we were celebrating by getting drunk off of our minds in front of the silent tv, just like in old days.

"you know?" potter said, looking at the screen. "i got back into russian."

"yeah?" 

"yeah." he nodded. "and you know what i noticed?"

"surprise me."

"that you got my name tattooed on you." 

oh fuck.

now he was looking at me, right into my eyes, unreadable gaze, never knew what that meant til that moment, and my tattoo tingled in my bicep, like it knew we were talking about it, and i still hadn't said anything because what the hell are you supposed to say when you get in this situation, and 

and he kissed me.

and i kissed back.

and the next day we walked down the street, hand in hand, and he got борис tattooed on him.

**Author's Note:**

> the best thing about writing from boris' pov is that i can fuck up english as much as i want and claim it's in character
> 
> anyways come scream at me abt boreo on tumblr @kill-your-poets-society


End file.
